A common type of connector that has opposite faces and rows of contacts at each face, is a gender reversal connector. Such connector can be used to connect the ends of two cables that cannot be connected together either because they are both male or both female or their ends do not fit one another. Connectors with rows of contacts at opposite faces, can also be used to connect selected contacts at one end to selected contacts at the other end, with or without signal processing components in between. Older gender reversal connectors with two rows of contacts have used flexible circuit boards with conductors on a board surface connecting together pairs of contacts at the opposite faces of the connector. A more recent gender reversal contact, described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,618,196 entitled "Gender Reversal Connector" by Muzslay has described a simplified gender reversal connector which does not require a circuit board. However, more recent requirements for connectors with at least three rows of contacts have prevented the use of such simplified gender reversal connector without a circuit board.
A connector with rows of contacts at its opposite faces, wherein there were at least three rows of contacts at each face, which enabled interconnection of the contact despite their close spacing along each row, would be of considerable value. A connector with rows of contacts at its opposite faces, which used a flexible circuit board to connect the two sets of rows of contacts, which enable the connector to be compact and the circuit board to be securely held in place, would also be of considerable value.